This invention relates to a gasket, made from a single-hardness elastomer, for sealing joints between male and female socket pipes, having a compression body and an annular anchoring heel projecting from the radial outer surface of the gasket.
Such a gasket must be radially compressed between the inner surface of the female socket of one of the pipes to be connected and the outer surface of the male end of the other pipe. In order to properly position the gasket in the socket it must be bent, which in certain cases is very difficult due to the natural stiffness of the gasket. A gasket of this type must also be able to make a perfect seal as a function of the dimensional tolerances of the pipes to be connected, the eccentricity of one pipe relative to the other, and the pressure of the fluid circulating in the duct.
A gasket of this type is disclosed in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 4,546,987 in which the anchoring heel is extended, in the radially inward direction relative to the inner surface of the gasket, by an annular compression foot. Although a gasket of this type effectively enables a satisfactory seal to be made, it has been found that, due to its stiffness which makes it difficult to bend, it is difficult and awkward to position in the socket in which it is intended to be mounted, in particular in the case of pipes with small diameters of less than 250 mm.